Appreciation
by It'sJustAKindOfMagic
Summary: Sulley realises how much he appreciates his little green friend.


It had been a while to get used to the massive changes at Monster's Inc. from roaring to laughing, but Mike and Sulley thought that they were handling things pretty well. Of course, Mike was still the same with his controlling, bossy nature, and Sulley, well, let's just say he hadn't changed much since they sent Boo back home, only the fact that he was now CEO of Monster's Inc, and Mike was his Assistant Manager and Top Comedian.

Everybody would always come up to Sulley and congratulate him on the amazing job he was doing with the company since Warternoose was fired, but in reality, it was all Mike's hard work and dedication to their job.

Which was probably why on Monday morning, he tried to get out of bed when he was obviously sick.

"But, I need to…get…to work!" he complained, as he tried to escape from his bed. He looked terrible. His face was even greener than normal and he was wheezing and coughing like he had just run a mile.

"No Mike, you're sick. You're staying in bed today. Don't worry, I can handle everything by myself," Sulley said, gently pushing his friend back underneath the covers of his bed, and tucking him in as Mike coughed heavily. "Geez, what did you eat last night on your date?" Sulley asked as he watched Mike cough.

Last night Mike took his long-term girlfriend Celia to Harry Housin's, the most expensive food franchise in all of Monstropolis, out on a date. "Well…we had…sea food," Mike said in between coughs.

Sulley rolled his eyes. "That's why you're probably sick. You might have food poisoning."

Mike's own eye widened. "What? Food poisoning! That's not a good enough excuse to stay home. I'm going to work, whether you…you…you…" Mike started to drift off to sleep.

"It's okay, Mike. Like I said, I can handle everything by myself." Sulley reassured his sleepy friend, grabbed his briefcase and headed out the door of their shared apartment.

However, Sulley wasn't so sure he could.

It only took him less than five minutes to walk to Monster's Incorporated, even though they now had enough 'scream' energy to power the whole city, he still enjoyed the fresh air and view of nature in the city of Monstropolis.

He arrived at Monster's Inc. in no time.

Everybody seemed to be busy with their own jobs, Celia was at the main desk as usual, where he and Mike walked past to get to the Laugh Floor.

"Oh, morning James. Where's Mike?" Celia asked, sounding surprised. She had never not seen Mike miss a single day of work.

"Oh, he's sick at home," Sulley said, but then he saw the surprised look on her face and reassured her, "but don't worry. It's just food poisoning."

This made Celia feel only a little better. Her poor Googly-Bear was sick at home on a beautiful day!

"Well, is it okay if I stop by and see him after work?" Celia asked, after answering another call.

"Yeah, sure, it's fine," he said, grabbing the clipboard from behind Celia's desk. "See ya later." He called to her as he turned and left. Celia waved good-bye to him and quickly answered the phone that had been ringing for quite a while.

"Morning, Sulley!" one of Mike's friends spotted Sulley standing by the coffee machine in the main hallway. "I have this report ready for Mike today like he asked me to, but I can see he's not here," the monster said.

Sulley took the report from the other monster. "Yeah, Mike's sick today. He wanted to come to work but he couldn't even get out of bed. So, I'll be taking over his job for today. What should I do with this report?" he asked the other monster.

"I think Mike was going to hand it in to Roz at her desk, I'm not sure, though, because I don't do his job. Well, I've gotta go. See you later, Sul!" the monster turned and left, leaving Sulley standing in the middle of the empty hallway.

"Yeah, that makes two of us..." he muttered to himself as he began to walk slowly towards Roz's desk just a few feet away.

"Mr Sullivan, what can I do for you?" drawled the female slug behind the window. She adjusted her glasses.

Sulley gave her an awkward smile, "uh, Mike's not here today, and I think he was supposed to give you this report," he handed her the yellow envelope.

Roz raised an eyebrow. "Two weeks late, always forgets his paperwork..." she said, as she put the envelope containing the report underneath her desk.

"Uh...right. Well, I best be going now," he said, and finally started to walk back to his office.

It was a small room on the other end of the building, away from the Scare Floor, and closer to the incinerator they used for their garbage and dead doors.

He opened the door, where it had "James P. Sullivan" engraved on the front in gold, and the letters CEO underneath in cursive. He dropped his brief case down on his desk and sat down in his chair. There were a few sheets of paper scattered on top of his desk, and some photos in frames from when he was younger. He smiled a little as his eyes landed on a picture of him and Mikey; back when they were in college, standing in front of the gates of Monster's University. James was wearing his green Oozma Kappa shirt and Mike was wearing his OK hat. They were both smiling and James was using Mike's head as an armrest.

He was still kind of a jerk when that photo was taken, but his ego had worn down a little after he realised what was actually important in his life. He smiled as he thought back to his college days, and cringed when he remembered how rude and arrogant he had been to most other monsters on campus. No wonder he didn't have any friends before the OK Fraternity had been formed. It was all because of Mike that he was now CEO of Monster's Inc., a position that he _never _had imagined himself to be in if it weren't for his little green friend.

Sulley wondered what he would have done if he and Mike weren't friends or hadn't even met each other; he _definitely _would not even have a job, and he would probably still be living in his parents' house until he was thirty, like he knew some of the Roar Omega Roar ex-members were doing, having Mike as a friend was a bonus because he needed a push to get things done, otherwise he would never get around to doing them himself.

Maybe Mike wasn't only sick from the food poisoning, maybe it was from working and pushing himself too hard, and this was just a way for his body to let him know that he needed a break. Sulley wished that more people would appreciate the effort that Mike put into Monster's Inc., that it wasn't all just fun and games like it seemed to be. Mike had taught him a lot in the past few years they'd been friends. In college, he learnt that you should approach new people and ideas with an open mind. While they were working their way up the ladder here at MI, he learnt one of the most important things that he'd never forget: If you put your heart and soul into something you really want to achieve, then you can achieve that goal no matter what.

He had to remember to thank Mike for all the things he'd done for him in the past few years.

James then spotted a to-do list on his desk that Mike had most likely wrote for him. It was more than a foot long when he unravelled it.

He sighed as he read over the jobs that needed to be done. There were a _lot_.

_Well, _he thought, _I'm not going to get anything done by just sitting here all day._

It was through hard work and determination, that got Sulley through the tough day at work without Mike by his side.


End file.
